an oddly human pokemon
by poodlecake85
Summary: a young male OC growing up with his pokemon. will there sibling like relationship be maintained. not if i can help it. will start off slow with them getting to know each other, then as they really get to know each other. "wink wink nudge nudge". technically an AU first chapter just explaining how the world is different. second chapter introduces characters and setting. please read.
1. prologue

**this chapter is here to explain why the world of pokemon is how it is in this story. i figured if i was going to create an AU i may as well give it some back story.**

The world of pokemon is no longer as it was.

30 years after the events of pokemon emerald a war broke out between the Johto and Kanto regions. After years of bitter political bickering, when tensions were at their highest a simple act of spilling a drink at a world meeting, which ironically was organized to settle things down, led the Kanto region to invade its neighbour.

Five months later the Johto regions forces managed to wipe out sixty thousand enemy troops in a daring counter offensive, with almost half of their fighting force dead or imprisoned the Kanto leaders had no choice but to retreat.

Three bloody years later and both regions where dying, almost all the young people, men and women, or more really boys and girls were conscripted en-masse. Given a brief training and second hand weapons they were thrown at each other. Anyone whose job was not necessary to the war effort soon found themselves in a similar situation. Parents, siblings, children, anyone over the age of 18 in Kanto and 17 in Johto were forced to become either killers or cannon fodder.

The end of the war came from a source no one suspected. Hoenn had spent the last three years training troops to intervene if the civilian casualties grew too high. Thirty thousand experienced, hardened, full time soldiers came from the west. Using long range electrical weapons they brought first Johto and then Kanto to their knees with only minor casualties, during the first three and a half years nearly four hundred thousand people lost their lives, after Hoenn stepped in only two hundred an nine perished, one hundred and fifty three of them from previously sustained injuries. Out of the thirty thousand troops Hoenn sent, all but two survived.

After being conquered by an outside force the people responded in a way that few saw coming, instead of treating the Hoenn soldiers as conquerors they saw them as liberators, returning both regions to peace without slaughtering their people brought hope to the war torn countries.

After a few months under Hoenn control a vote was put forth on what the countries would do in the coming years, the vote was almost unanimous, with only a small percentage of people against it the three countries became one. The three regions were quickly joined by the Sinnoh region in the newly formed Hoenn Federation. The Unova and Kalos regions refused to join and instead formed an uneasy alliance in case of invasion. No invasion ever came, with four regions under the control of one democratic government there was little need to seek out anything more.

Citizens were able to easily travel between the regions in the federation. Job opportunities brought many workers from the Hoenn and Sinnoh regions onto the mainland, after all there was much that needed rebuilding, before long people had a hard time being prejudiced against the people from the other regions as in almost every town there were people from each, there were no foreign aliens only neighbours with slightly different cultures. Teams rocket and galactic were quickly crushed, teams magma and aqua had long ago disbanded.

* * *

Ten years later and the world had changed again, but in most part it was for the better, humanitarians had raised many issues with Pokémon battling, and as such the government brought it under control, regulated it and overall increased the safety for Pokémon and humans everywhere. Training Pokémon now required a Pokedex, as Poke balls would not hold any Pokémon unless electronically linked to one, the amount of time Pokémon could spend in a poke ball was limited to three hours, after which the poke ball scanned the area to insure the Pokémon could be safely released and quickly did so. This meant that mass storage of Pokémon was impossible, trainers were then limited in how many Pokémon they could keep with them. Only six Pokémon were allowed for regular trainers, winning badges could increase this up to ten, all of were to be carried with the person, gym leaders and Pokémon breeders could have fifteen, elite four members eighteen, this meant that most gym leaders and elite four could have many different types of Pokémon to respond to different tactics, although league rules prevented them from using more Pokémon than the trainer they didn't have to nominate which of their Pokémon would battle before it began. Pokémon professors twenty five and a psychic type.

At age ten anybody could get a free pokedex but until authorized it would only allow one single Pokémon, in order to get more required obtaining a Pokémon trainers license, which could not be obtained until age 18, the examination required a minimum of four years experience with a single Pokémon and extensive background knowledge. This was at first a problem until the government started training Pokémon professors to teach classes, Pokémon professors often taught large classes on a semi-daily basis while also conducting their research.

The period of time the trainers had to spend with a single Pokémon was intended to create strong bonds between Pokémon and trainer, however when creating this part of the new law only a few people saw a possible issue with it, many trainers began to have more than Pokémon master relationships, more than friendly relationships, a large number of people began engaging in romantic relationships with their Pokémon, some going as far as sexual relationships. At first the government tried to prevent it but due to overwhelming opposition they were forced to allow it, however fears of sexual abuse arose and in the end it was determined that before any sexual act was committed the trainer would need to prove that their desired partner was just as much consenting to the act and not simply following it's trainers orders. To do this Pokémon professors where required to have at least one powerful psychic Pokémon capable of telepathy, the Pokémon would communicate with this psychic Pokémon who would then telepathically tell the professor what it had determined, Pokémon professors were and still are therefore the only one legally allowed to authorize such a relationship. The exception to this rule was psychic Pokémon, as most could simply tell the professor themselves.

Most of the abuse or mistreatment prevention systems were in the poke balls themselves, whenever a Pokémon was returned to the poke ball it would scan the Pokémon and send its data to the pokedex, if the Pokémon regularly shows injuries seeming to come from more than training or unusual damage that would not have been obtained in the heat of battle the pokedex would notify the local authorities. Most of the time it was trainers repeatedly training too hard, the authorities suggested taking breaks and training with a little less fervour, if the authorities had to make multiple visits to the same trainer within a small amount of time there was grounds for suspension of the trainers license, if the Pokémon was found to have been mistreated it was grounds for cancellation of the trainers license as well as being unable to re take the test for a determined amount of time, if the Pokémon was found to be abused the trainers license would be immediately cancelled and depending upon the severity of the abuse prison sentences could be issued.

Whether the actions were mistreatment, abuse or just ignorance would be determined by a Pokémon professor and if necessary a Pokémon nurse/doctor.

Actions considered mistreatment.

*note, if more than 2 of these actions are committed simultaneously it will be treated as abuse.

1) Lengthy confinement to a poke ball. While a poke ball will release the Pokémon after 3 hours there is nothing stopping the trainer from returning it immediately.

2) Feeding wrong food. Many Pokémon are either herbivores or carnivores, feeding either the incorrect food will be considered mistreatment. Purposely feeding wrong food will be considered abuse.

3) With holding food/ feeding too little. With holding food as punishment falls under unnecessary punishment.

4) Unnecessary punishment. While Pokémon may at times require punishment excessive punishment or punishment deemed cruel will not be allowed.

5) Unwanted sexual advances. To be determined by way of psychic Pokémon. Unwanted sexual advances do not cover unwanted/forced sexual actions.

6) Mental mistreatment. A Pokémon's mental health is just as important as its physical health. If mental mistreatment is purposeful or extreme will be considered abuse.

7) Un-authorized sexual actions. Many young trainers will begin sexual relationships with their Pokémon before having such actions authorized. If Pokémon is consenting only minor punishment administered. If Pokémon was at any stage unwilling will be treated as unwanted/forced sexual actions

Actions considered mistreatment are treated more leniently as many inexperienced trainers will commit these without realizing it. Continued mistreatment will be treated as abuse.

Actions considered abuse.

1) Purposely inflicting serious harm. Either done by the trainers hand or one of their other Pokémon. Punishment determined depending upon level of serious harm done.

2) Unwanted/forced sexual actions. Either ordering Pokémon to accept sexual actions or forcing the actions(direct abuse), forcing Pokémon to engage in sexual actions with other Pokémon also falls under this category(indirect abuse). Punishment includes but not limited to immediate cancelation of license, removal of pokedex. Imprisonment, 5 year minimum sentence for direct abuse 3 ½ for indirect abuse. Permanent restrictions in place when released.

3) Taking actions which cause permanent serious injury to Pokémon. Not purposeful but extreme injuries, if you are found to be at fault, either by negligence or ignorance for the Pokémon's injuries. Punishment determined upon harm done.

4) Causing Pokémon death. Either by killing the Pokémon purposely or through negligence/ignorance. Examples of ignorance/negligence include extinguishing a Charmanders flame.

The hardest thing for the police is stopping the illegal actions before they are committed, older or imported poke balls do not release the Pokémon after a set amount of time meaning that many Pokémon can be easily hidden, they also do not report the Pokémon's condition.


	2. Chapter 1

**AN: i mention in this Beedrill honey, yes i know that Beedrill is more like a hornet than a bee but i don't think it's ever been said that they can't make honey, even if it has this is a fanfiction so in this beedrill are capable of producing honey.**

**if anyone actually reads this please note that it is my first fanfiction so it's probably not going to be great, any advice is appreciated.**

**disclaimer. i don't own pokemon, if i did it would quickly lose it's g rating. also i don't even know how i could make money off of this so i'm not doing that either.**

* * *

The small town of pinewood was not known to many. Nestled deep in the hills of Viridian forest, with only a small dirt trail hinting at its existence, the town had no Pokémon centre and certainly no poke mart. With only two hundred permanent residents there were few children, three around ten years old, and two still in diapers. Almost every night some one's home would be broken into by wild Pokémon, this led to the only actual businesses being a window repair man and a green grocer, any new buildings were generally built by a former soldier turned builder and his Pokémon, which initially caused some problems.

Even with these factors nobody in town thought of moving away, being such a small town there was very little risk of crime, unless you counted the nightly raids of Pokémon who had developed a liking of human cuisine, mostly sugar. With coordination amongst neighbours the townsfolk managed to get what they couldn't make or produce from Viridian city. Being such a small town the Johto Kanto war had only briefly touched them, after the creation of the federation they did receive a few families from Hoenn and Sinnoh but they were quickly accepted, the window repairman was one of the families from Sinnoh and the builder was the only person from Hoenn.

The population of the town valued one thing above all else however, the only reason the town was thought about for anyone other than family members, despite having such a small population Pinewood had its own Pokémon professor, she had set up in the town initially to study a colony of Beedrill which was abnormal friendly. She quickly determined they used to belong to a resident who harvested their honey, this intrigued her even more as Beedrill rarely produced honey and the fact that they were willing to allow the beekeeper to harvest it was un heard of. This honey was why the town had started in the first place however during the war the beekeeper was killed, and while the Beedrill stayed friendly most of the time they refused to allow anybody close enough to their hive to collect any of the honey, many people had found themselves stung from trying.

The professor's lab had a decent sized building in front of it which served as a school to anyone in the town who wanted to learn more about Pokémon, the three older children and a few adults went three times a week, Monday, Thursday and Friday. It was supposed to be Wednesday instead of Thursday but that was designated as the shopping day, when a group of people would head over to Viridian to buy and sell, the professor found it much easier, and safer to go into town with them rather than alone.

The builder, given his former soldiering was the only person in the town qualified for any sort of law enforcement, however given that any crimes committed in the town were petty and often committed by the green grocers daughter, most started off as pranks or dares anyway, there really wasn't any need for him to accept the title, however the small income it gave him was helpful, given that most people already had all the buildings they needed and he had a son to care for.

The professor's lab was the last major project he had worked on, unfortunately this created some small rumours, the professor had shown up before her residence was completed, and having no where to stay had accepted the offer of hospitality from the town's local law enforcement, who happened to be her builder and a single parent. While the stay may have been nothing more than hospitality and necessity for the pair a few of the townsfolk had thought it a great idea to speculate where she slept, in reality she had stayed in the builder's son's room, the young boy had stayed in his father room with him for a the few months while his father worked on the buildings. But the builder and professor had no way to prove this to the few townsfolk that didn't believe them.

* * *

The builders son, a young boy named Johnathon, called John unless receiving a "talk" from his father was now 10 years old, slightly shorter than most his age which worried him a little but his father always said he still had plenty of growing to do. With thick chestnut brown hair always kept short, in part due to preference but mostly due to his father's ineptitude at giving anything close to a small trim. He asked for a small trim once, it did not go well and in the end had to go to an actual hairdresser to get it fixed. His eyes, which were currently as wide as dinner plates, were a deep green, his father explained that they were like his mothers, one of the few times john had heard his dad talking about his mother let alone actually telling him anything about her. His nose was, as far as he could tell fairly normal, a little bigger than the other kids his age that he knew, but he assumed that was because of the difference in gender, what worried him about it was that his father's nose was huge in comparison to most other adults, he didn't want his nose getting that big, or misshapen. His mouth which was slightly open in awe at the moment had small light pink lips and mostly perfect teeth, the front teeth were a little big and his last baby tooth, the rest were lost after he tripped and hit the right side of his jaw on a steel beam or fell out naturally, was kind of crooked, but he was sure that would change when the adult tooth grew in.

"hey, are you even listening to me?" his father's voice fell on deaf ears, John could not tear his attention away from what was in his father's big hands. Noticing this he brought the object up to the side of his head.

"now Jonathon, if you won't listen I'll be forced to take it back" the use of his full given name immediately brought him out of his trance.

"is…is that what it looks like?" his voice was quite but full of hope. His father was aware of what the item looked like and it most certainly was what his son thought, that was the reason his needed to listen to him.

"yes. Yes it is and before you go back to staring in amazement put this on" his father threw a large thick hoodie at him.

"ah dad I don't need any new clothes and besides, it's way too hot out for this" it was the middle of summer after all and John was sure he would suffer if he wore this around for any great amount of time.

"hey, I don't care if it's hot you need to keep this warm, I only barely had enough for this and the guy threw in the hoodie for free when he realised that I didn't know the first thing about taking care of it, so, you will put the hoodie on and then I will had it to you, okay" johns father watched his son desperately try to get the hoodie on as fast as possible, halfway to getting his right arm in he stopped, then slowly took the hoodie off turned it around and put it on the correct way around.

"I um. I don't really know much about taking care of them either, so ah. Could I go visit the professor with it?" John asked, his father just laughed at him.

"what's so funny, you know she knows more about Pokémon than anyone else around here" John told his father, who only laughed harder.

"that, in all your ten years is the smartest thing I have heard you say, but do you really think I haven't thought about it, she's set aside some time around three o'clock to go over as much as she thinks necessary with you." His father finally managed to say after calming down from his hysterics. "But don't you talk to me like I'm an idiot again you here me." He told his son, who had finally managed to get the hoodie on, in a suddenly much more serious tone.

"uh yeah. Sorry dad" John personally thought that he in no way talked to his dad in any way other than regular conversation but he knew it was impossible to argue out of it, and given how exited he was figured apologizing for an imagined slight was better waiting.

"you don't need to apologize, just means your growing up is all, but if you want to go through your rebellious teenage years at least do me a favour and wait till you're a teenager. Anyway let's get this in there" as he was finishing he reached forward and grabbed the large pocket, or really pouch, on the front of the hoodie and inserted the egg that was to become his sons first Pokémon. " now you head over to the professors early and see what you can get out of charlotte about eggs okay"

He didn't have to tell John twice, with no more than a "thanks dad" he was off running towards the professors home, at this time of day that's where he would find charlotte, the daughter of the Pokémon professor and the only person who John could really call a friend, most other people in the town were way too old to hang out with, the only other person near his age in the town was the green grocers daughter, Victoria, although the only person who called her that was Johns dad, and normally when he was escorting her home after a prank gone wrong or a dangerous or slightly criminal dare, for this reason she didn't like to spend much time with John as his dad seemed to show up more often with him around.

When he finally reached the professor's house he just ran inside, with the professor out doing field research, charlotte would be upstairs and they had both come to an understanding long ago that if she didn't want him banging on the front door till she responded then she wouldn't complain about him entering without asking, although after he accidentally walked in to her room while she was changing he decided to always knock on that door.

After reaching the top of the stairs and turning left, right led to the professors room or study, and entering the door on the right hand side of the hallway, left led to a room he had never been in before, he assumed it was a guest room or something, although the few times he had stayed over he slept on a mattress in the professor's study, so it being a guest room didn't make a lot of sense but he always just thought '_what else could it be'._

"you can come in John" a soft voice called back as soon as he had knocked once.

"how do you always know it's me?" John asked as he walked into her room, he knew how she knew but he always asked anyway, "it could have been some burglar or kidnapper"

"would they have knocked on my bedroom door but not the front?" she replied without even looking at him. Charlotte, the twelve year old daughter of the professor was lying on her bed, her long unkempt white hair splayed over the pillow under her head, her light blue eyes staring intently into the eyes of her Pokémon, a sullen looking tepig which she held above her under its arms, leaving it's lower body to sag a little.

"so what are you doing to tepig?" John had to know. It didn't seem like she was doing anything but tepig looked rather upset.

"I'm just wondering why he won't evolve already, Pignite are supposed to be much more obedient. Tepig here keeps misbehaving, he got outside yesterday and mum had to get Houndoom to track him down, it was so embarrassing, I can't even stop my only Pokémon from running away, it's been two years now and he shows no sign of evolving or even listening to me. Argh why does this have to be so hard" she was clearly upset about it so John thought he would change the topic.

"oh yeah that's why I'm here. I'm supposed to see the professor in an hour or so, but I figured you could probably tell me some stuff before that"

"what are you talking about?" she asked while finally turning her attention away from Tepig. "And more importantly what is that in your shirt?" Charlotte threw her legs over the side of her bed and sat up, putting tepig down on the ground, who, as soon as his feet touched the soft carpet of her room, ran and hid under her bed.

"what's wrong with tepig, he seems scared. But this is an egg, dad got it for me today, it's why I'm here, the professor is apparently going to tell me how to look after it, but I thought you could maybe tell me some things as well"

"Tepig is scared because Houndoom was the one to bring him back, you know what she can be like sometimes. Anyway, can I see it?" she said while leaning down to scratch tepig who had poked his snout out at mention of his name.

"uh yeah, I suppose" he said while sliding his hands down the sides of the pouch to gently grip the egg, as he pulled it out he realised he had only a small amount of time to actually look at it before.

"it's kinda small, but the colours are pretty" she commented while taking the egg from his hands.

"well hey, you can only really compare it to tepig's egg right, maybe he was just fat"

"pig" tepig called out with a little flame coming from his nose at the suggestion he had a fat egg, or fat at all for that matter.

"oh don't worry tepig, you're not fat, just bigger than the Pokémon that Johns got. And he's jealous of that"

"he is kind of fat" a last ditch attempt to convince himself, more than her that his egg wasn't smaller than it should be. "besides it might just be a smarter Pokémon."

"yeah probably, mum brought an Abra egg back once and it was way small, I think smaller than this one, but not all small Pokémon are smart, it could be like a pichu or something. Whatever it is I'm sure it will behave better than Tepig."

" I really hope so, dad wouldn't send one of his Pokémon out looking he'd make me go find them, maybe it is an Abra, that would be cool."

"no, the colours and markings are way different, besides mum said that baby Abra's are really hard to look after, something about them moving in their sleep or something. Anyway mostly with eggs you just need to keep them warm, I have a bag thing you can put it into at night, kept tepig nice and warm, but I lost some of the metal bits so you will still probably have to use that shirt pouch thing during the day." She then put the egg back into the pouch, and went to start the search for the heat pouch.

"okay, so finding this thing might take a little longer than I thought" as she was saying this John came around to look at her open closet, which was almost full of clothes, he expected that, but he also expected it to be tidy or organized, this looked like she had just thrown everything in here one day then forced the door closed, she in fact had but she wasn't about to tell him this.

"it's in there isn't it?" he knew it was, but part of him hoped she was looking for something else in the closet.

"yeah it's in there, I guess this means it's time to finally clean it all out. I really don't.." she was cut off by a sudden "PIG" coming from right behind her, as she turned around to see what Tepig wanted he ran past her and into her closet, pushing his way under clothes until he was lost from sight.

"if he finds it I will take back everything I said about him not behaving" as she was saying this they heard the front door close.

"if that's Vicky again I might set Tepig on her, yesterday I caught her switching the salt and sugar around, dinner would have been terrible, well, more terrible" the professor was arguably the smartest person in town, however when it came to cooking meals she was actually worse than some of her Pokémon, Houndoom not counted because she knew how to barbeque food better than most of the town's residents .John had stayed over a few times, once for Charlottes 12th birthday, once for a school project, which pretty much just entailed feeding all of the professors Pokémon, he only messed up one, turns out Houndoom does not like to eat berries, he also stayed over a few times with Vicky for no real reason other than they felt like it, the mornings after staying over where always fun as it seemed Vicky didn't sleep and liked to turn the house into a minefield while everyone else did. Out of all those times he had stayed over the cooking had been done by Alakazm, except the last time he was here, it was, to say the least, bad. The professor seemed to have no idea of what should and what shouldn't be combined.

"Charlotte, you home sweetie" the voice that called out belonged to the professor. Who it seemed was back from field research.

"Mum don't call me that, also Johns here, he got an egg. Is it okay if I lend him the heat pouch thing that I used for Tepig?. If I can find it that is" the last part was said only to John, and also inadvertently to Tepig.

"oh, hello John, I know he got an egg, I knew before he did. Do you even still have that thing, I could have used it for the last couple of eggs." The professor, called back.

"hello Ms Vaughn" John greeted her as she walked into the door way. Her hair was the same white as her daughters pulled up into a loose ponytail, her face framed by a few stray strands. She currently wore a pair of thick framed, rectangular glasses, behind which her piercing blue eyes seemed tired. She wore a simple black t-shirt and navy blue pants. " I was just visiting to see if Charlotte could tell me anything about looking after my egg."

"well, for now looking after your egg is just about keeping it warm, and not broken, the main reason I set aside the time today was to find out what it will hatch into, so that you can study how to look after it once that happens, now we should probably do that as soon as possible, if you wouldn't mind coming with me, oh wait, would you like something to drink or eat?, I doubt my daughter would have offered you anything"

"oh no, I'm okay, I haven't really been here very long" he was a little thirsty but that might mean waiting longer to find out what Pokémon he was going to be raising.

"well alright then, it would probably be best if you let me take the egg and for you to wait with Charlotte while I run the tests. Some of the stuff in my lab can be, scary." With that she took the egg from John and went into what was apparently not a spare room, but some sort of second lab.

* * *

Almost half an hour later, after getting a drink and talking with Charlotte for a while, until Tepig burst out of the closet with what John assumed was the heat pouch that Tepig had been looking for, which lead to Charlotte showing him how to heat the thin strips of metal and safely insert them into the pouch. John was scared out of his mind as his egg appeared in front of his face, jumping back and hitting against the professor.

"Hey careful wouldn't want me to drop it now would you?" the professor asked while putting it back into its pouch on the front of his new hoodie.

"what is it, can you tell me?" John wanted nothing more than to know what Pokémon he would be getting.

"what would have been the point of me finding out what it's going to be, specifically in order to allow you time to learn how to raise it, if I didn't plan on telling you, hm. Doesn't make much sense now does it." While she was saying this she tussled his hair and knelt down to be eye level with him. "your egg is going to hatch into a Ralts John, your very lucky."


	3. Chapter 2

"Hey steven, wait up would you" professor Vaughn called out to the man as he was walking towards his home.

"oh hey professor, aren't you busy with John?" the large man said as he turned to face the much smaller woman.

"it's an egg Steven, pretty much all he has to do is keep it warm and unbroken. Also you know you don't have to call me professor, you aren't a student of mine, but I actually needed to talk to you about the egg, it could take a while." She said while looking up at him, she thought to herself _'he really is too tall'_, she herself was far from short standing at 5 feet 8 inches, but Johns father was at least a foot taller than her, the tallest person in the village in fact. "It's kind of important"

"hmm, well did you want to come over then, I can put the kettle on if you want." It would be good to spend some time with the woman, and while he would never tell her this for fear of a misunderstanding, he found her to be one of the few decent people in town to talk to, there wasn't so much anything wrong with talking to the other villages, but there was only so much one could listen to people complain how hard life was or how they miss the Beedrill honey, those were pretty much the only two things most of the adults in town went on about.

"do you have any coffee?, Psyduck spilled mine everywhere." Psyduck had most certainly not done so, at least not recently after she had all the containers and cupboards child proofed after waking up to find the Pokémon had redecorated her kitchen with a combination of flour, food colouring and a worrying amount of sugar, but if a small white lie could get her into the house of the large builder, a rather notorious loner, only really engaging with the other villages for work or if it involved his son, then she had no problems telling it.

"sorry but no, I don't drink coffee normally so I don't really have any, I have tea or hot chocolate though." Steven was pretty sure she knew he didn't drink coffee, but decided not to bring it up.

"oh well I suppose I could have hot chocolate then, which I assume is for John, you don't strike me as the type for it. Unless you drink it while curled up in bed with a good romance novel" She knew it was for his son but liked to tease him, well she liked to tease everyone, the person who got it worst was one of her adult students who had come to her asking if she would authorize him and his Meowstic's relationship, she teased him whenever they were alone as she was fairly sure no one but the four involved; her, the two wanting to start a relationship, and of course Alakazam who had made sure it was indeed a genuine relationship, knew about it.

"well, normally I would say that yes it is for John but I did get a new book while out today, not a romance though. And before you say anything, yes I can read. Also should we, I don't know maybe start heading over now, standing out here and just talking seems to be intriguing Mrs Harsch." The woman in question was trying to hide her interest by browsing through her husbands cabbages, she was one of the two people who, even to this day didn't believe that there wasn't anything going on there.

"Oh well if she's intrigued now wait till she sees me following you into your home, I think I might ruffle my hair before I leave." She decided not to ask him what he meant by insinuating she would call his literacy into the conversation, she knew that many in the town thought him to be what he at first appeared, a former soldier who now relied on manual labour to earn money. "it's your house so would you care to lead the way."

"ah right, well come on then" Steven was terrified of her actually following through on her threat, it had taken years of only minimal contact with the professor to quiet down the rumours, he still found it hard to believe that they had started in the first place, but it was a small town, and as he well knew, there wasn't much to talk about around here. "Please don't ruffle your hair"

"Oh don't worry, I had to listen to the rumours as well you know" she said to the big guy, _'so easy to scare'_ she thought to herself as she followed after him towards his home.

* * *

As she sat in the large living room, sipping her hot chocolate and waiting for Steven to return with something to eat the professor couldn't shake the thought that something about the room was drastically different, she had lived in this house for months, and while that may have been nearly five years ago she was certain something was different about the room she was in.

"it's the wall" the deep voice of houses owner sounded behind her as he walked around to sit across from her, placing a small plate of what she assumed were strawberries on a small table between them. _'interesting'_ she thought another thing which doesn't add up, strawberries were rather expensive.

"okay but what about the wall" she was here for a rather serious matter but she had to know.

" I extended it out about three metres a year ago" he was often doing renovations on the house, he needed to keep his skills sharp and there wasn't much business in the town.

"okay well, for the reason that I'm here" she said while picking up a strawberry. It was time to discuss what she needed to now. "How did you afford strawberries?, these are fresh and Mr Harsch hasn't grown any this year."

" I thought you were here to talk about the egg" he knew where she was going with this but decided to keep that to himself, anyone who looked into how he could afford most of what he had gotten while out today would have drawn similar conclusions, that he couldn't.

"well, these had to be bought today, and the egg that Johns got was also bought today right" she really hoped that he had a good excuse.

"yeah, got the strawberries on my way back from the breeder." He hadn't done anything illegal, he knew that would explain how he got the egg at all, being a rather expensive Pokémon, especially an egg.

"do you know what the egg is Steven?" she really hoped that both he and the breeder didn't know, otherwise she had no idea how he could afford it, if he was working on any large projects he may have been able to afford it, but as far as she knew her lab and house were the last major jobs he had.

"the breeder was fairly sure it was a Ralts, but I don't really know how to tell, why do you ask?" a small part of him enjoyed knowing she was jumping to all sorts of conclusions in her head.

"okay, well, crap Steven I have to ask, how could you have possibly have afforded a ralts at all? Let alone have had money over? I need to know, if you don't have a really good answer I'm going to have to assume that you obtained it by less than legal methods, if that's the case I will have to report it." She watched as his face changed, with just the slightest movements his smile was gone, his eyes seemed to grow cold and hard, the man sitting across from her seemed completely different from the always cheery builder she knew. A small part of her mind was screaming at her that she had just accused the most dangerous person in town, in terms of physical ability and experience, of being a criminal. The rest of her mind was worried, worried not for herself but for the man in front of her and for his son.

"you know, there was a time when I would have simply thrown someone out of my house for accusing me of criminal activities" his voice was as cold and hard as his eyes, he sounded like a different man altogether, the part of her that was scared suddenly took over, kicking in her fight or flight instincts which she knew wouldn't help her, she certainly couldn't fight him, and for some reason she felt like he could move significantly faster than her.

Steven watched her pupils dilate, eyes widen the smallest amount and a small amount of sweat on the side form on the side of her head. It had been a long time since he had purposely scared somebody and he was remembering why he didn't do it often. "If you're not going to eat that I will" in an attempt to lighten the mood he reached over and took the strawberry from her hand, which he noticed stayed in the same place after he did. "but luckily for you I understand how you came to that conclusion, even luckier for you is that yes I do have a very good reason for being able to afford such an expensive Pokémon and have a fair bit left over."

Releasing the breath which she didn't realise she was holding she slumped back into the chair. "please tell me, also you scared the crap out of me, you were actually scary for a moment there, never do that again." She realised that aside from the initial sentence that his voice had gone back to normal, as had his eyes, no smile back yet.

"okay well long story short the guy owed me a favour and agreed to sell me an Eevee cheaply, when he realised it wasn't for me, he sold me the ralts egg for less than he wanted for the Eevee, he knows, or knew John back when he was really little" he felt a little bad for scaring the woman but if it was someone else accusing him of being a criminal he likely would have thrown them out.

"Alright, let's say I believe you, which I do. I need more information, could you make it a medium story, I do need to know but I have other things to discuss with you now." With him having legally obtained the egg there were a few rather important things she needed to tell him about the Ralts.

"okay, so I'll tell you why he would sell me the egg or even the Eevee so cheaply, that's all you really need to know, the breeder fought in the war, you know how it was all conscripts near the end, well he wasn't, he had joined willingly and had survived since it began, he was an officer, now, I don't know if you know this but the Kanto army had a lot of problems making conscripts fight, so, if say some of the conscripts tried to surrender or worse run, it was an officers job, to, _correct_ that." What was actually practiced was field executions for deserters or traitors an action not carried out by the Johto army as it had less trouble convincing the conscripts to fight and kill.

"so when this breeder, his names tom, returned home he found his house had been burnt to the ground, the pay he had received during the war was all safely stored in a bank, needing a place to stay he went to the inn, they accepted him but charged ridiculous amounts, wanting to start breeding Pokémon he started looking for builders to build the required structures, as well as a house for him to live in. knowing that he was an officer during the war, most people either refused to even speak to him or asked for ridiculous amounts which he couldn't afford." Many people had actually attacked the man on the streets, it was during one of these attacks that Steven had met him, but that wasn't really information he thought she needed to know.

"so when I met him in the inn's bar, he told me his troubles, I helped him out, working for months for pretty much nothing, actually I ended up poorer than I had started, during that time I needed someone to watch John for me, so tom did that, at the build site of course. Anyway he said he owed me, but he did eventually pay me for the work, he said if I ever needed a Pokémon he would help me out, when he realised I was getting John his first Pokémon he went on about the boy deserving more than a glorified dog. When I handed him the money he handed most of it back, saying that was the price for me to buy myself an Eevee, the Ralts was apparently a gift, the money that he took was apparently to appease someone who had called asking about the Ralts the day before." While he was explaining all of this the professor sat in silence, wondering how she ever thought this big softie sitting across from her could ever be a threat to her safety _'well he was a soldier, so he is capable of it'_ she thought to herself. "that's pretty much the story, well the important parts anyway. Would you like a strawberry to replace the one I stole from you?" he said while holding up the plate after realising that other than that particular strawberry they hadn't been touched.

"Oh, yeah. I'm not one to turn down free strawberries" she promptly took the plate from him and started to eat them. "But ah, part of what I wanted to talk to you about Tom touched on" this could very easily, and if she had time, very likely would get awkward.

"the 'glorified dog' comment is important here, you see most Pokémon act very similar to regular animals, eating and drinking when necessary, either forming herds or wandering alone depending on the species, mating for reproduction only, those sort of thing, but some Pokémon are different, over the last ten years there have been significantly more reports of Pokémon behaving much more human like, this is probably due to the Pokémon welfare laws which have us treat them less like animals. The point is that the most common type of Pokémon reported acting like this are psychic Pokémon, with Gardevoirs being the second most common, first being kadabra, alakazams seem to act more like they're better than people, smug bastards, anyway back to the point at hand, the Ralts that you have gotten for John will be nothing like the Eevee you were planning on getting him, most likely it will refuse to sleep in its poke ball or even really spend much time in it at all, it will certainly not eat out of a bowl on the ground like Tepig does, but the most noticeable thing will be its unwillingness to be subservient, meaning that giving it commands will likely just anger it, this Pokémon is going to be very hard to raise Steven, you are going to have to be an active part of that process." There was another issue but she wanted to make sure he got all of that before raising it.

"so wait, I'm pretty sure I understand, are you saying that I have gotten John a possible sibling or friend rather than pet"

"that's, actually an excellent way of putting it" _'why didn't I just say that' _she thought while waiting to see how he would respond to the news, he seemed to be taking it rather well

"that may be the greatest news I've heard in a long time, I mean a regular Pokémon would have been great for the boy but a Pokémon which is more like a person, a friend or sibling is going to be fantastic. This calls for a celebration, do you have a preference of alcohol?" he said while getting up.

"what? Wait are you serious, you're happy about this" she thought he would have been upset about having to raise what is pretty much a second child, but he seemed genuinely ecstatic. "hang on Steven it's quarter to four."

"close enough to five, if you don't tell me soon I'm just giving you scotch" he said while going into a cupboard she didn't recall ever seeing open before, she didn't even know that was a cupboard, there weren't any handles.

"Are you sure you're okay with what I said? Also scotch is fine but only a little bit" she would have preferred a nice wine for a celebration but she could drink the scotch quicker without feeling like an alcoholic.

"ha, I told you didn't I, this is in no way bad news, I mean, if it won't sleep in its poke ball does that mean I have to get a bed, wait where would I put the bed, there's so much to think about." He handed her a small ornate glass which was half filled with scotch and ice and started pacing back and forth.

"Uh Steven, there is another issue that this raises" she had to tell him.

"**Wait**, I know where to put the bed, can you keep John over your place tonight, I've got some rearranging to do." He was so wrapped up in his wondering that he hadn't even heard her.

"yes I can, but Steven listen, with the Pokémon acting more like a human and the fact that both Kirlia, and Gardevoir are rather humanoid in appearance there is a good chance that, feelings, may arise, these feelings could lead to a possible human-Pokémon relationship" as soon as she had said "feelings" Steven had stopped pacing and given her his full attention.

"well, I mean, it's not definite is it, they might just stay friends. I really liked the idea of grandchildren, but if it happens then it happens, if John fall for his Pokémon then he falls for his Pokémon. Anything else I might need to know?" he was so calm, she didn't expect this, she expected this reaction even less than she expected him to celebrate the last news.

"Uh. Just that Kirlia will need underwear. You are way too calm right now, are you sure you're okay, you might be in shock or something" there was no way he could be okay, she was completely taken aback.

"why just Kirlia, what about Ralts or Gardevoir? And what were you expecting? Me to be disgusted by the idea of my son in a relationship with a Pokémon, even if it was illegal I wouldn't have a problem with it, love is love, I might have more of a problem were it a more animal Pokémon, but you said it yourself, Gardevoir are very similar to people." This man was something else, she was almost too shocked to speak.

"Ralts doesn't really have anything to cover and while Gardevoir will need underwear it's only necessary if anybody can see up the dress bit, Kirlia's skirt is rather short. And kind of yeah, I expected ranting, sickened silence, anything but just immediate acceptance. Also it could be male, what will you do then." She was trying to get him to show some emotion now.

"Get a dawnstone so he's not stuck in a dress for the rest of his life. If he falls for his Pokémon it doesn't matter what gender it is I won't be getting grandchildren out of it. Although I would prefer it female, because up until a relationship happens, if it happens, she could be like my adopted daughter or something, always wanted a daughter. Wait people and Pokémon can't reproduce right? I'm fairly sure they can't" What was she expecting, if he could accept his son being into Pokémon why wouldn't he accept a gay son who's into Pokémon.

* * *

After downing her scotch and saying goodbye to the man as he was raving about how he was going to rearrange things she headed home. When she got there she explained to John, and inadvertently Charlotte, about his Pokémon being more human than most other Pokémon, she wasn't even surprised when this seemed to make him happier, his father was the one to raise him after all, her daughter seemed the most upset by it, given that she would have to wait at least six more years before getting another Pokémon, and as far as she understood a Pokémon that was more human would listen to her more often.


	4. Chapter3

**Disclaimer. I don't make any claim to own any of the Pokémon, locations or other Canon subjects which may appear in the story. **

**A.N. I forgot to put this in the last chapter so I just thought I would put it here.**

**This being a fanfiction and technically an Alternate Universe I have decided that regular animals will exist in the world as well, not nearly as common as they are in ours but still there, this was mostly so I could explain what people and some Pokémon eat, unless you go with the "everyone's vegetarian" excuse, but what kind of a world would that be.**

**Okay so there are going to be some physical differences with the Ralts, Kirlia and Gardevoir in this, firstly Ralts and Kirlia will be significantly taller. With full grown ralts being 2'04'' tall. Rather than the tiny 1'04'' that canon Ralts are. And full grown Kirlia being 4'06'' rather than the 2'07 that canon Kirlia are.**

**Kirlia's skirt part will also go completely around with no opening at the front or back, and hang a little more loosely rather that stuck out so much, this is due to Kirlia having certain, ah, body parts.**

**Lastly and this is much more minor, Gardevoir will be a little taller but only 5' 05'', which is only two inches taller. Really there is way too much height difference between Kirlia and Gardevoir. And Gardevoir will have human like breasts, nothing major, certainly not to the extent other authors will give them, just small probably A cup breasts.**

* * *

"why is it blue?" two months of looking after his egg had led to this. Two months of carrying an egg in the front of his shirt, two months of studying nothing but Ralts behaviour. And now that the egg had finally hatched, but, it looked different, every picture he had seen of a Ralts had the green bowl cut hair being, well green, his seemed to be blue.

"there is no way you can be that lucky." The professor stated as she walked over to see if he was in fact that lucky. The professor had known this was a possibility but for it to actually happen was extraordinary, given that the egg had cost Johns father almost nothing was one thing, but if the Pokémon was shiny then he had gotten the best deal she had ever heard of. Given how many times this family had surprised her over the last two months she really didn't know if she could take much more.

"What does it mean? Is there something wrong with it?" John was worried, he would still love it as much as a normal Ralts, but he was worried that it may have trouble in life. If it needed extra care he wasn't sure he would be able to take care of it, he barely knew how to take care of a regular Ralts.

"No, there's nothing wrong with it. It's just a small mutation that sometimes occurs in Pokémon, it causes slight colour variations. In this case, the parts of it that should have been green will be blue." Explained the professor while examining the Ralts to make sure there actually wasn't anything wrong.

"will it carry through when it evolves?" Steven asked, the big man stood a little bit further back from the others as there really wasn't that much room around the table, with the professor and Alakazam checking to makes sure everything was okay, why Alakazam was there Steven couldn't guess, _'maybe because it's psychic' _he thought, his son there because it is his Pokémon after all, as well as his sons friends, Charlotte, the professor's daughter, and the closest thing the town had to a criminal, the daughter of Mr and Mrs Harsch, Victoria.

"yes, as far as I know the colour change is complete, so Kirlia will have a blue lower half as well as hair." The professor went about tending to the small Pokémon while everyone else just stared at the silent Ralts. For a few seconds the professor did nothing, just stood there halfway through putting the egg fragment into a bag for disposal. "Ah right, can't believe I forgot, the Ralts will be looking for its family, which for now is you" gently taking hold of Johns wrist she guided his hand down onto the Ralts' front horn, which was currently a deep rose red rather than the lighter pink colour it should have been.

From the outside it appeared as if John simply stopped, every muscled in his body stayed in the same position, he didn't blink and it appeared he wasn't breathing. "is he breathing?" Steven was suddenly much closer to the table, worried about his son he went to remove his hand from the Pokémon's horn.

"no stop." The professor grabbed hold of the large man's arm, she knew about as much as he did at the moment but Alakazam had almost forcefully compelled her to intervene. "ah, Alakazam says that he is breathing but only a very small amount. what? Oh, this is something that wild psychic Pokémon do to quickly get to know each other, so we need to wait, but he actually isn't blinking. Charlotte could you, oh wait never mind, thank you." As she was going to ask her daughter to get the eye drops they had simply floated over thanks to Alakazams telekinesis.

* * *

John felt sick, he felt like throwing up, except that he couldn't feel his stomach, or any of his body for that matter, this was by far the most out of body experience he had ever had. He could feel something different, it felt like he wasn't alone there seemed to be a small presence somewhere nearby.

_'who'_ there came a soft voice, except, he didn't hear it, not like he normally heard things anyway, it was like a thought, only not his thought.

_'who'_ the voice seemed to be growing, almost scared, why would this voice be scared he thought to himself, and unknowingly the voice in his head as well.

_'who'_ the voice came again, it seemed to be getting louder, and what he thought might be demanding. Then he felt something he would never want to feel again, memories, his memories, being forcefully run through his mind, anything he could remember suddenly popped into his mind, all his thoughts, all his fears, anything he could remember, and everything he could remember, playing in his head all at once.

_'Stop'_ there was another voice, and another presence. Thankfully the memories in his head did stop, but this new voice was unlike anything else he had ever felt, this voice in his head held so much power, it was terrifying, he knew that if this voice wanted anything from him it would get it.

He felt fear, but not his fear, he could still feel his own fear of the second voice, but now there was what he could only describe as a second fear in him. The overwhelming emotions almost knocked him out until a warm feeling of safety enveloped him, he felt first his own fear dissolve, then slowly the second fear ebbed away, his logical mind told him this was worse than before, but no matter how much he tried to think otherwise he felt safe.

_'try again young ones'_ the second voice this time, John thought it meant for the forceful recollection of memories to resume but all that came was the much softer first voice.

_'who'_ the same word again, but this time he felt a force that seemed to be pushing him to respond, and while last time he didn't know what it wanted it seemed crystal clear, the voice was asking him who he was.

_'I'm John'_ he found that trying to speak the words aloud got him nowhere so he decided to think them. it seemed to work.

_'Jo-John'_ the voice seemed to be asking, seemingly thanks to the second presence he realised that the name sounded strange to the first presence.

_'um, yeah, I'm John. Are you, are you maybe Ralts'_ his mind was working as fast as it could, faster than it normally would. The first voice had to belong to Ralts. Who or what the second voice was he had no idea. They had to be in his mind, or maybe Ralts's mind, he wasn't as sure about the where, but was almost certain of the who.

_'Ra-Raltssss'_ the voice seemed unsure, maybe he was wrong, if he was wrong then this whole situation was completely insane, well, more insane.

_'in this case another name may be better'_ the second voice re-entered the silent conversation. John couldn't help but wonder what it meant? _'a name for this one in particular'_, John couldn't help but think the voice was clearly able to hear whatever he thought. _'of course'_. A small amount of fear crept into his mind, _'is no thought safe'_, he wanted to test if he could just think his side of the conversation. In reality that was all he had been doing the whole time, as no actual words were spoken.

_'Ralts'_ the first voice sounded in his mind again, it didn't sound very happy.

_'find a better name John'_ the second voice was rather forceful this time, and more than that it used his name, so it knew him._ 'of course it knows my name it's in my head'_, forgetting that the voices could hear his thoughts.

_'name'_ the voice nearly crushed him. John tried desperately to come up with a name, he had no memories of the Ralts to go upon, from its presence in his mind he quickly determined it was female, he summoned the only memory he had of her, freshly hatched with her blue hair, '_something about her hair maybe_', all he could think was blue, but that sounded ridiculous to him. '_Her horn maybe, yes_.'

_'Rose'_ he thought it would work, it could easily be a name and her horn is the same red as a rose. He tried as hard as he could to direct the thought towards her. _'how do you feel about being called rose.'_

_'Ro-Rose. Rose.'_ She tried her new name out, he thought it sounded better hearing it, seemed more like a name that way. Although it sounded like she didn't like it, she did seem to like it more than just being called Ralts.

John felt the sudden departure of the second presence, leaving him alone with rose as she tried out her new name, he thought he might try to talk to her but felt himself leaving, he wasn't sure what was happening until he could see again, what he saw shocked him, no way near what had just happened, but it was still surprising, the lights were on above the table, when he looked to the window he saw that it was dark outside, the egg had hatched in the early morning, there was no way it had been so long, also the professor stood right in front of him with something weird in her hand.

His eyes hurt, really bad, like he had been at the beach all day, as he closed them he suddenly felt extremely tired, his arm hurt like never before, all his muscles hurt, every one of them. Then it hit him, the nausea he had felt before came back in full force, emptying what little was in his stomach onto the floor. After that was over, he felt, almost like he was falling asleep, but way too quickly.

* * *

The professor was about to administer the eye drops to John again when she noticed him move his head, before she knew it he had thrown up on the floor between them, and partially on her shoes and passed out.

"Steven, Alakazam, get in here" she called out while making sure he was okay. As far as she could tell he was breathing properly now. His pulse was fast but not dangerously so.

"What happened? Is he okay" Johns father had arrived first, '_no surprises there'_ she thought to herself. "as far as I can tell he's okay, but he seems exhausted, can you carry him home or would you rather he sleep here?" she asked, she would prefer to keep him here but something told her he would be okay at home.

"Can I carry my own son home she asks. Of course I can" he bent down and gently picked his son up and held him bridal style, Steven looked into his son's face and realised the last time he had held him like this was when he was still a baby.

Seemingly of its own accord the Ralts floated off the table and softly landed on Johns chest. _'Keep them like that, at least for a while, it will help the bonding'_ Alakazam tried to tell Steven but found his mind impossible to contact. Remembering every other time he had tried getting into the man's head had ended the same way he repeated it to the professor, who told the man for him, going through another person rather than communicating directly was something Alakazam hated. Almost everyone except the children in the town had heard his voice at some time, _'except this man'_ he had to be careful to keep that last thought out of the professors mind, her knowing how much it bothered him wouldn't do any good.

* * *

After saying his goodbyes and agreeing to bring the pair back for a check-up in a couple of days, Steven headed home carrying his son and his new Pokémon home, once there he thought for a few seconds of how to get them into bed without putting them down first, in the end he laid his son on top of the blankets then pulled them out from underneath him and lay them back over the sleeping pair, Rose had not moved from her spot on Johns chest. After making sure all the windows were closed in the room left them to sleep.

* * *

**more Authors notes. sorry the chapter is shorter than the last two, i wanted to write more but then the chapter would have ended weird or have been huge/ taken ages to write and upload.**


End file.
